Ice Cube to play Scrooge in A Christmas Carol

Rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube is to play Scrooge in a modern retelling of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'

Ice Cube is to play Scrooge in a modern retelling of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'.

The 46-year-old star - who initially found fame as part of the iconic rap group N.W.A. - is to play the central role in the Tim Story-directed retelling of the story.

In the modern take on the Dickens classic, Cube will star as wealthy real estate mogul who is shown the path to redemption by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, Deadline reports.

Meanwhile, Cube recently hit back at critics of his most-recent movie project, 'Straight Outta Compton', urging them to make their own version.

He said: "People are welcome to do their own version of the N.W.A. story.

"There's been a thousand movies about Elvis, we can tolerate a few more N.W.A. movies."

Critics hit out at the decision to cut certain incidents from the movie, and Cube - who served as a producer on the new film - thinks his suggestion could rectify that.

He admitted: "That being said, and that put to the side, this is a situation where you could pick and choose what you want to put in the movie. There are things that are bigger that aren't in the movie."